Saturday, February 4, 2012

Tranny Get Your Bun (in the Oven)

The latest arena in which the transgendered may be facing "discrimination": fertility treatments. The National Post reports that

Those who have transitioned from women to men can often get pregnant, so long as they temporarily stop taking male hormones. If the sexual reassignment surgery involved attaching a prosthetic penis, delivery of the baby has to be done by Caesarian section, he said. Transsexuals who have shifted from male to female are often still able to produce sperm, which can be used in fertility treatments.

In an article for the Infertility Awareness Association of Canada, Dr. Buckett pointed to evidence that men who have transitioned to women can have lingering psychological problems even after reassignment surgery, and suggested barring treatment for such clients. He softened his stance in an interview, however, saying each case should be judged on its merits.

Ms. Jacobs said she believes there are no grounds for discriminating against transsexuals, but said their background does raise "huge" parenting issues, and recommends to such patients that they clearly explain their origins when the children are old enough to understand.

A 2010 journal paper from the University of Illinois College of Medicine concluded there is no evidence that having transsexual parents triggers any harm in children that would disqualify them from assisted-reproduction services.

For Rachel Epstein of Toronto's LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer) Parenting Network, resistance to transsexual people getting fertility treatment is just a replay of the unjustified prejudice lesbian and gay couples faced at most clinics a decade ago, and still encounter at some today.

"We get impatient with the arguments, and they're very hurtful arguments. Can you imagine opening up the paper and reading an article about whether you were entitled to be a parent?" she said. "We very seldom wake up pregnant ... so we are very reliant on reproductive technologies. We want to make sure we have fair and equitable access."